amoenus - people

182
9.
HEROES AND RULERS
it? . . . Surely God created it with his bare hand, to astonish Nature . "
Descriptions of beautiful men and women are obligatory in courtly poetr y
and were turned out in accordance with recipes which we need not discus s
here . 3 7
10
The Ideal Landscap e
a7 Ecphrasis of a beautiful man : Stud. med ., IX (1936), 38, No . 3o .—Chretien' s
term for ecphrasis is devise (Perceval, 1805) .—Description of human ugliness de rives from the vituperatio . In its treatment of epideixis antique rhetoric mad e
"blame" the opposite of praise . This had consequences for medieval poetry, into
which it is impossible to go here . Sidonius' description of Gnatho (Epistles III, 13 )
was the model for the style .—In medieval Latin : Vitalis' Amphitruo, 11 . 25 if. ,
Geta in Alda, 11 . 171 if ., Davus in the Ars versificatoria of Matthew of Vendome ,
I, $53 (Faral in Stud . med ., IX [1936], 55) . Cf. supra, p. 69, n. 17.
Exotic Fauna and Flora / 2 . Greek Poetry / 3 . Virgil
4 . Rhetorical Occasions for the Description of Nature
5 . The Grove / 6 . The Pleasance / 7 . Epic Landscape
1.
ideals and human ideals of late Antiquity, the Middl e
Ages, and the Renaissance were given expression in the schemata o f
panegyrical topics. Rhetoric conveys the picture of the ideal man .
But for millenniums it also determines the ideal landscape of poetry .
T
HE CLASS
1.
Exotic Fauna and Flora
Medieval descriptions of nature are not meant to represent reality . This is
generally recognized in respect to Romanesque art, but not in respect t o
the literature of the same period . The fabulous animals of the cathedral s
stem from Sassanian textiles . Whence stems the exotic fauna and flora o f
medieval poetry? The first requisite would be to catalogue it . That canno t
be done here . We shall take only a few random samples .
Ekkehart IV of St. Gall has left a series of versified graces on variou s
foods and beverages (Benedictiones ad mensas), which have hitherto bee n
held to possess "great value for the history of culture" since it was believe d
that they contained "a complete monastery menu ." The order of the grace s
was supposed to correspond to the order in which the several courses wer e
served. This produced the following picture of the eating habits of ou r
forefathers : "First they filled their bellies with various kinds of bread, wit h
salt, after which came at least one course of fish, fowl, meat, or game (al l
without sauces, vegetables, or other side dishes), after which came mil k
and then cheese . Then a dish containing the most pungent spices an d
sauces, together with honey, flat cakes, and eggs, after which vinegar wa s
happily drunk (1 . 154 : "sumamus leti gustum mordentis aceti"), prdsumably as an aperitif for the following courses, which consisted of at least one
dish each of legumes, native fruit, southern fruit, and fresh edible roots .
Thirst was quenched first with divers wines, next with beer, and finally wit h
water . " 1 It is now proved that in general the Benedictiones refer to dishes
which Ekkehart found in Isidore's Etymologiae, that, in short, they are
1 Ernst Schulz in Corona quernea, 219 if.
183
184
10 . THE IDEAL LANDSCAP E
"versified lexicography ." Among Ekkehart's graces there is one for figs, on
which the editor, Egli, remarked : "Although the fig has been cultivated in
Germany, it has never become a familiar or popular article of diet . In any
case, the monastery of St . Gall obtained this fruit too from the South . "
But what are we to say when a poet from Liege announces that sprin g
has come : The olive, the vine, the palm, the cedar are in bud? 2 Olive trees
were extraordinarily abundant in the medieval North . They appear not
only in Latin love poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 3 but also ,
by the hundreds, in the old French epic . Whence do they come? From the
rhetorical school exercises of late Antiquity. But in medieval Europe ther e
are also lions . A poetical epistle by Peter of Pisa describes the mood of mid day : The weary shepherd takes refuge in the shade "and sleep enwrappe d
men and tawny lions" (Poetae, I, 53, 4) :
Cingebatque sopor homines fulvosque leones .
Here a historian of the feeling for nature is bewildered by "the entirel y
meaningless mention of the lion ." 4 But the feeling for nature—a concep t
which has never been clarified—has nothing to do with the case . It is a
matter of literary technique . The lion, that is, figures in Roman poetry .
The "fulvi leones" are taken from Ovid (Her., X, 85) . Writing in verse ,
Alcuin hopes that a traveler will not be attacked by lions and tigers on hi s
road (Poetae, I, 265, 7) . A Frenchman complains that the inroads of th e
Saracens have left the relics of the saints a prey to birds and lions .° Englis h
shepherds are warned to beware of lions .° Only exceptionally are these
animals not dangerous ; for example, in the district where the new Salisbury
cathedral was begun in 1219 : "There the fallow deer fear not the bear,
nor the red deer the lion, nor the lynx the snake . . ." 7 The French epic
swarms with lions . One, which a king received from Rome as a gift, is calle d
"un lion d'antiquite" (Aiol, 11 79 ) . How rightly! Siegfried too, of course ,
kills a lion . " His delight in Siegfried ' s exploits leads the poet to tell tal l
stories," Bartsch commented . Hardly! It is a case of epic stylization, afte r
the model of Antiquity and the Bible. All of these exotic trees and animal s
were in fact like Ekkehart's figs, imported from the South—not, however ,
from gardens and menageries, but from antique poetry and rhetoric . Th e
descriptions of landscape in medieval Latin poetry are to be understood i n
the light of a continuous literary tradition .
2 Sedulius Scottus, Poetae, III, 171, 45 if .
8 Walter of Chdtillon 1925, p . 30, St. z .—Carmina Burana, ed . Schumann, No .
79, St. 1 .—Marc Bloch (La societe *dale, I [1939], 155) is of the opinion that
merchants and pilgrims had described "la beaute de l'olivier mediterraneen" to th e
minstrels . But the olive appeared in Latin poetry before it did in vernacular poetry .
4 W . Ganzenmuller, Das Naturgefuhf im Mittelalter (1914), 78.
6 Adalbero of Laon, ed . Heckel, p . 142, 127.
° Bede, Vita Cuthberti metrice, 1 . 1 35 .
7 Henry of Avranches, ed . Russell and Heironimus, p . 11 4, 149 .
GREEK POETRY
18 5
How long did its influence last? In Shakespeare's Forest of Arden (A s
You Like It) there are still palms, olives, and lions .
z.
Greek Poetry
With Homer the Western transfiguration of the universe, the earth, an d
man begins . Everything is pervaded by divine forces . The gods are the y
who "live at ease ." They may quarrel among themselves, outwit one an other, cover one another with ridicule (as Hephaestus does Ares and Aphrodite) . But this strife among the Olympians is to the advantage of th e
heroes : Odysseus is persecuted by Poseidon's wrath, and protected b y
Athena . Only one dark shadow hangs over this happy world : the doom
of death . This world does not yet know the chthonic—or does not speak o f
it ; nor the demonic with its intricate and terrible toils, to the weaving o f
which "the gods themselves lend a hand, tangled skeins of horror which i n
turn produce fresh horrors, situations in which brother slays brother, th e
son his mother ." ° The tragic as the basic aspect of existence, the vie w
which dominates Attic tragedy, is rejected by Homer.9 He reflects the view
of life of a knightly ruling class . But the heroic ideal is not conceived tragically, heroes are allowed to feel fear, like Hector, and war is an evil . Thi s
the Christian-Germanic Middle Ages will no longer allow .
Nature shares in the divine . Homer prefers the more amiable aspects o f
Nature : a cluster of trees, a grove with springs and lush meadows . There
dwell the Nymphs (Iliad, XX, 8 ; Odyssey VI, 124 and XVII, 205) or
Athena (Od ., VI, 291) . A ravishing bit of scenery in this tonality is th e
uninhabited goat island near the land of Cyclops (Od ., IX, 132 ff .) : "Here
are meadows on the banks of the gray sea, moist, with soft soil ; here vines
could never die ; here is smooth ploughing-land ; a very heavy crop, and al ways well in season, might be reaped, for the under soil is rich . . . . Just
at the harbor's head a spring of sparkling water flows from beneath a cave ;
around it poplars grow ." * Here fertility is made an element of the idea l
landscape . The most elaborate variant is afforded by the Gardens of Alcinous (Od., VII, 112) . Here there are fruits of the most various kinds : pomegranates, apples, figs, pears, olives, grapes . The trees bear all through the
year, for it is always spring and the west wind always blows—the island o f
the Phaecians is indeed a land of faery . Two springs water the garden . Another fabulous place of heart's desire is the grotto of Calypso (Od ., V, 63) .
It is surrounded by a forest of alders, aspens, and cypresses . Four spring s
water the meadows, in which violets and parsley grow . The entrance to the
8 Alfred Weber, Des Tragische and die Geschichte ( 1 943), 2 40 .
9 Od ., I,
32 if . Zeus here rejects the imputation that the gods inflicted woe upo n
men . He had sent Hermes to warn Aegisthus . Had Aegisthus heeded the warning a
series of tragic horrors (the murders of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, the madnes s
of Orestes) would have been avoided . There would have been no Oresteia .
[' G. H . Palmer's translation (replacing R. A . Schroder's) .]
186
187
10. THE IDEAL LANDSCAPE
CREEK POETRY
grotto is overhung by a luxuriant grapevine . In Ithaca there is a wondrous
grotto sacred to the Nymphs (Od ., XIII, 1o2) : "Just at the harbor's head
a leafy olive stands, and near it a pleasant darksome cave, sacred to nymphs ,
called Naiads . Within the cave are bowls and jars of stone, and here bee s
hive their honey . Long looms of stone are here, where nymphs weave purpl e
robes, a marvel to behold . Here are ever-flowing springs . The cave has double doors : one to the north, accessible to men ; one to the south, for gods .
By this, men do not pass ; it is the immortals' entrance ." *
The Odyssey tells too of blessed shores which are free from ills and wher e
the pains of death are unknown . On the island of Syria, rich in grapes, there
is neither hunger nor sickness (XV, 403) . When people grow old, "Apollo
and Artemis come with silver bow and slay them with their gentle arrows . "
It is promised to Menelaus that he will not die but instead be borne t o
"the ends of the earth" where lies Elysium : there is perpetual spring, refreshed by the blowing of the west wind (Od ., IV, 565) ; and it is the sam e
on the heights of Olympus (Od ., VI, 42 ff .) . And when the gods embrac e
in love, a magical nature takes part too . Zeus and Hera hide on the topmos t
crest of Ida in golden clouds (Iliad, XIV, 347 ff .) : "And beneath them th e
divine earth sent forth fresh new grass, and dewy lotus, and crocus, an d
hyacinth, thick and soft, that raised them aloft from the ground ." t
From Homer's landscapes later generations took certain motifs which became permanent elements in a long chain of tradition : the place of heart' s
desire, beautiful with perpetual spring, as the scene of a blessed life afte r
death; the lovely miniature landscape which combines tree, spring, an d
grass ; the wood with various species of trees ; the carpet of flowers . In the
hymns to the gods ascribed to Homer we find these motifs elaborated . Th e
flowery mead of the Hymn to Demeter displays roses, violets, irises, crocuses, hyacinths, and narcissuses . The "Homeric" flowers are still used b y
Moschus in his epyllion Europa (ca . 150) . Another procedure in the Iliad
is the use of trees to identify epic scenes . In Aulis the sacrificial altar stand s
under a beautiful plane (II, 307) . The battlefield before Troy displays a
beech . Sarpedon is made to rest under it (V, 693) . It stands by the Scaea n
gates (VI, 237), and serves as a meeting place for Apollo and Athena (VII ,
22) . They perch on it together in the form of vultures (VII, 6o) . Hector
stands near it (XI, 70) ; and so on . There is a wild fig-tree too (VI, 432 an d
XI, 167) . Later we shall again encounter this technical device for markin g
a scene .
As in Homer, so in all the poetry of Antiquity nature is always inhabite d
nature . It makes no difference whether the inhabitants are gods or men .
Abodes of the Nymphs are also places where man delights to sit and rest .
What are the requisites of such a spot? Above all, shade—of great importance to the man of the South . A tree, then, or a group of trees; a spring o r
brook for refreshment; a grassy bank for a seat . A grotto can serve the purpose too. Socrates encounters Phaedrus outside the gates of Athens . Socrates : "Look round for a place where we can make ourselves comfortable ."
Phaedrus : "Look over there behind that tall plane . There are shade and a
breeze and grass to sit down on, or, when we please, to stretch ourselves
out." The praise of the plane fills all Antiquity (Victor Hehn) . Under
planes the ancients wrote verse and prose, philosophized .' 0
To write poetry under trees (cf . p . zo8, n . 14 infra), on the grass, by a
spring—in the Hellenistic period, this came to rank as a poetical motif i n
itself . But it demands a sociological framework : an occupation which
obliges him who follows it to live outdoors, or at least in the country, fa r
from towns . He must have time and occasion for composing poetry, an d
must possess some sort of primitive musical instrument . The shepherd ha s
all of these at his disposition . He has ample leisure . His tutelary deity is th e
spirit of the flocks, Pan, inventor of the shepherd's pipe of seven reeds .
Beautiful shepherds (Anchises, Endymion, Ganymede) had been deemed
worthy to be loved by gods . The Sicilian shepherd Daphnis, who scorned
the love of a goddess for the sake of a mortal woman, had already bee n
celebrated by Stesichorus in the seventh century. But Theocritus of Syracuse (first half of the third century) is the true originator of pastoral poetry .
Of all the antique poetical genres, it has had, after the epic, the greates t
influence . There are several reasons for this . The shepherd's life is found
everywhere and at all periods . It is a basic form of human existence; an d
through the story of the Nativity in Luke's gospel it made its way into th e
Christian tradition too . It has—and this is very important—a correlativ e
scenery : pastoral Sicily, later Arcadia ." But it also has a personnel of it s
own, which has its own social structure and thus constitutes a social microcosm : neatherds (whence the name bucolic), goatherds, shepherdesses ,
etc. Finally, the shepherd's world is linked to nature and to love . One ca n
say that for two millenniums it draws to itself the majority of erotic motifs .
The Roman love elegy had a life span of but a few decades . It was littl e
capable of development or renewal . But Arcadia was forever being rediscovered. This was possible because the stock of pastoral motifs was bound
to no genre and to no poetic form . It found its way into the Greek romanc e
(Longus) and from thence into the Renaissance . From the romance, pastoral poetry could return to the eclogue or pass to the drama (Tasso's Aminta; Guarini's Pastor Fido) . The pastoral world is as extensive as th e
knightly world . In the medieval pastourelle the two worlds meet. Yes, in
the pastoral world all worlds "embrace one another" :
[* G. H . Palmer's translation (replacing R . A . Schrodei s) . ]
[ t Lang, Leaf, and Myers' translation (replacing R . A . Schroder's) .]
10 Documentation in A . Nowacki, Philitae Coi fragmenta poetica, Munster dis sertation (1 927), 81 .
11 Bruno Snell, "Arkadien . Die Entdeckung einer geistigen Landschaft" (in An tike and Abendland, Beitrdge zum Verstiindnis der Griechen and Romer, herausgegeben von B . Snell [Hamburg, 1945], z6 if .) .
188
10 . THE IDEAL LANDSCAP E
GREER POETRY
Die Quelle springt, vereinigt sturzen Bache ,
Und schon sind Schluchten, Flange, Matten griin .
Auf hundert Hiigeln unterbrochner Fliiche
Siehst Wollenherden ausgebreitet ziehn .
There Pan protects, there vivifying nymph s
Dwell in the dripping, green-clad crevices—
And there aspire to higher airs forever
The intertangled ranks of branchy trees .
Verteilt, vorsichtig abgemessen schreite t
Gehorntes Rind hinan zum jahen Rand;
Doch Obdach ist den siimtlichen bereitet ,
Zu hundert Hohlen wolbt sich Felsenwand .
Ancient those woods! The oak's unyielding powe r
Casts each branch in a stubborn mold—its own .
The softer maple, running with sweet juices,
Shoots heavenward, rejoicing in its crown .
Pan schiitzt sie dort, and Lebensnymphen wohne n
In buschiger Kliifte feucht erfrischtem Raum,
Und sehnsuchtsvoll nach hohern Regione n
Erhebt sich zweighaf t Baum gedrangt an Baum .
In that still circle of maternal shadow
The frothy milk streams warm for child and lamb ;
Close by hangs fruit, ripe bounty of the lowlands ,
And honey trickles from the hollow stem .
Alt-Walder sind's! Die Eiche starret mdchtig ,
Und eigensinnig zackt sich Ast an Ast ;
Der Ahorn mild, von sussem Saf to trdchtig,
Steigt rein empor and freut sich seiner Last .
Here sweet content descends to son from sire ,
And glowing cheek responds to cheerful lip ,
And each who is at home here is immortal ,
Where happiness and health are given to each.
Und mutterlich im stillen Schattenkreise
Quillt laue Mitch bereit fur Kind and Lamm;
Obst ist nicht weit, der Ebnen reife Speise,
Und Honig trieft vom ausgehohlten Stamm.
So down the lighted days the child develops
Till through him too the strength of manhood floods.
And we, we wonder ; still we feel the question—
These blest ones, are they men or deathless gods?
Hier ist das Wohlbehagen erblich,
Die Wange heitert wie der Mund,
Ein jeder ist an seinem Platz unsterblich:
Sie sind zu f rieden and Best nd.
So like Apollo's self to shepherd's favo r
That one most fair among them seemed his brother .
For there where Nature rules with none to stay he r
All worlds do mingle and embrace each other . )
Und so entwickelt sich am reinen Tag e
Zu Vaterkraft das holde Kind .
Wir staunen drob ; nosh immer bleibt die Frage:
Ob's Cotter, ob es Menschen sind .
So war Apoll den Hirten zugestaltet ,
Dass ihm der schonsten einer glich;
.Denn wo Natur im reinen Kreise waltet,
Ergreifen die Welten sich.
(Springs bubble out, brook joined with brook runs streaming ,
Already gorge and slope and mead are green .
Where the plain heaves into a hundred hillocks ,
The woolly sheep in scattered flocks are seen .
Beyond, with step as careful as 'tis certain ,
The horn-browed herds toward the cliffside graze ;
There could they shelter every one, for there
The stone is hollowed in a hundred caves .
189
Goethe ' s Faust is a "restitution of all things " (Acts 3 :21) in the
continuity of the world's literature—hence a bringing back of pastora l
poetry too . Theocritus decorated his poetry with the riches of a souther n
summer : "High above our heads waved many a poplar, many an elm tree ,
while close at hand the sacred water from the nymphs' own cave welle d
forth with murmurs musical . On shadowy boughs the burnt cicalas kep t
their chattering toil, far off the little owl cried in the thick thorn brake, th e
larks and finches were singing, the ring-dove moaned, the yellow bees wer e
flitting about the springs . All breathed the scent of the opulent summer" *
(VII, 135 ff.) . In an epic hymn, the poet conducts the Dioscuri to a wil d
mountain forest with trees of every kind . At the foot of a sheer cliff there i s
a spring of clear water. Its pebbles glitter like crystal and silver ; pines, whit e
poplars, planes, cypresses, fragrant flowers beautify the spot (XXII, 36 ff .) .
If there is to be a contest in song between two shepherds, each first propose s
a favorite place : The shepherd Thyrsis : "Sweet, meseems, is the whispering sound of yonder pine tree, goatherd, that murmureth by the wells o f
[* Andrew Lang's translation .]
190
10 . THE IDEAL LANDSCAPE
water ." The goatherd : "Beneath yonder elm let us sit down, in face o f
Priapus and the fountain nymphs, where is that resting-place of the shepherds and where oak trees are" * (I, 1 ff.) . Variation on the motif : on e
shepherd decries the other's favorite place . Lacon : "More sweetly wilt tho u
sing, if thou wilt sit down beneath the wild olive tree, and the groves i n
this place . Chill water falls there, . . . here grows the grass, and here a
leafy bed is strewn, and here the locusts prattle ." Comatas : "That way I
will not go! Here be oak trees, and here the galingale, and sweetly here hu m
the bees about the hives . There are two wells of chill water, and on th e
tree the birds are warbling, and the shadow is beyond compare with tha t
where thou liest, and from on high the pine tree pelts us with he r
cones 12 " f (V, 31 ff .) .
As the two last examples show, the motif of the bucolic contest betwee n
singers and poets ramifies organically to produce the description of a delightful spot—descriptions far more detailed than the corresponding pas sages in Homer, but still saturated with actual observation .
3 . Virgil
Pastoral poetry could become a permanent part of the Western traditio n
only because Virgil took it over from Theocritus and at the same time trans formed it . Sicily, long since become a Roman province, was no longer a
dreamland . In most of his eclogues 13 Virgil replaces it by romantically
faraway Arcadia, which he himself had never visited . Theocritus had some times introduced himself and his friends as shepherds (Idyl VII) ; Virgil
brings into his pastoral world not only his own life, but also the figure o f
Octavian and Caesar's star—in other words, Roman history ; and, beyon d
this, the religious ideas of the Saviour and the new era . 14 Thus in his earliest
work he preludes his masterpiece . To know only the Aeneid is not to kno w
Virgil . The influence of his eclogues on later times is hardly less importan t
than that of his epic . From the first century of the Empire to the time o f
Goethe, all study of Latin literature began with the first eclogue . It is no t
too much to say that anyone unfamiliar with that short poem lacks one ke y
to the literary tradition of Europe .
It begins :
Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fag i
Silvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena;
Nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva :
Nos patriam f ugimus: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra
Formosam resonare dotes Amaryllida silvas .
[* Andrew Lang's translation (slightly altered) . ]
12 Pine seeds were eaten .
[ t Andrew Lang 's translation . ]
13 Virgil's "pastoral poems" (Bucolica) consist of ten " eclogues ." Ecloga mean s
" selected composition, " but later becomes the generic term for pastoral poetry .—
Fontenelle, Poesies pastorales, avec un Traite stir la nature de 1 'Eglogue et on e
Digression stir les Anciens et les Moderns (1688) .
14 Friedrich Klingner, Romische Geisteswelt ( 1
943), 154 if .
VIRGIL
19 1
(Thou, where this beech doth spread her close-leafed tiers,
Liest outstretched, 0 Tityrus, and wooes t
The sylvan muse with that slim reed of thine ;
We from our country ' s bounds, her dear, dear fields ,
We from our country ' s self must fly ; while tho u
Dost idle here in shade, teaching the woods
To echo "Amaryllis beautiful ." )
Here the very first line introduces the " motif of bucolic repose, " which
engendered an innumerable progeny ; all that was needed was to substitute
for the Virgilian beech a poplar, elm, willow, or merely "a certain tree "
(arbore sub quadam 15 . . .) . I give two of Virgil's own variations (Buc . ,
III, 55 if . and V,1ff .) :
Dicite, quandoquidem in molli consedimus herba .
Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos;
Nune frondent silvae ; nunc formosissimus annus .
(Begin, since now we sit upon soft grass .
Yes, now each field and every tree brings forth,
Now leaf the woods, now is the year at fairest . )
"Cur non, Mopse, boni quoniam convenimus ambo ,
Tu calamos in flare levis, ego dicere versus ,
Hic corylis mixtas inter consedimus ulmos? "
" Tu maior ; tibi me est aequum parere, Menalca ,
Sive sub incertas Zephyris motantibus umbras,
Sive antro potius succedimus . Aspice, ut antru m
Silvestris raris sparsit labrusca racemis . "
("Why, Mopsus, since we both are well agreed
That thou wilt blow the pipes, I raise the song ,
Sit we not here, where elm and hazel meet? "
"Thou art the elder; make then thou the choice,
Menalcas, all is one to me—whethe r
Beneath these shades that shift as Zephyr blows
We halt, or seek that cave . Look, the wild grape
Already hangs her first few bunches there ." )
The close connection with Theocritus is obvious . But Virgil makes no
attempt to match his model in visual richness, in the full scale of sounds
and odors . Augustan Classicism does not tolerate Hellenistic colorfulness .
15 Some examples of " arbore sub quadam " : Florilegium Gottingense, No . 10 8
(RF, III, 292) .-SB Munchen (187 3 ), 7o9 .- " Arbore sub quadam protoplastu s
corruit Adam " : NA, II, 4o2 .—Degering-Festschrift, p . 313, No . 44 .-"Arbore sub
quadam stetit antiquissimus Adam " : Baudri of Bourgueil, No . 196,
115 .
192
10 . THE IDEAL LANDSCAP E
Not until late Antiquity is color in demand again—and then it is the colo r
of a kaleidoscope.
The pictures of nature in the Georgics would require an analysis which
we cannot permit ourselves to undertake . And from the Aeneid we shall
take but two ideal landscapes . In an "age-old," "immeasurable" fores t
pines, holm oaks, ashes, and elms are felled for Misenus' funeral pyre (VI ,
179 ff .) . The making of it is a pious duty for Aeneas and one condition o f
his entrance into the underworld . The other condition is that he mus t
break the golden bough that grows on the sacred tree in the midst of a clos e
grove set in a shadowy valley . The felling of the trees reminds him of it ,
and he finds his way to the miraculous branch . Thus Virgil's forest tremble s
with numen, the pervading presence of deity; it is the way,to the othe r
world, as it is in Dante; Virgil's wild forest is in a valley too (Inf., I, 14) .
Virgil's golden bough, as we know, served Sir James George Frazer ( 18 54 –
1941) as a key to the magic of primitive times . 1 6
On his journey through the other world, Aeneas comes to Elysium (Aen . ,
VI, 638 ff .) :
Devenere locos laetos et amoena virecta
Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas .
Largior his campos aether et lumine vesti t
Purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt .
(To joyous sites they came and lovely lawns ,
Blest seats, in woods which no misfortune scathes;
Fields clothed in ampler air, bathed in new light ,
Purple—their own sun sheds it, their own stars . )
In the first line the word amoenus ("pleasant, lovely") is used . It is Virgil' s
constant epithet for "beautiful" nature (e .g ., Aeneid, V, 734 and VII, 30) .
The commentator Servius connected the word with "amor" (the same relationship, that is, as between "love" and "lovely") . "Lovely places" are
such as only give pleasure, that is, are not cultivated for useful purpose s
("loca solius voluptatis plena . . . unde nullus fructus exsolvitur") . As a
terminus technicus the locus amoenus appears in Book XIV of Isidore' s
encyclopedia . This book treats of geography in accordance with the schema :
earth, orb, Asia, Europe, Libya (the only part of Africa then known ; Egypt
was accounted part of Asia) . Then follow islands, promontories, mountains, and other "names for places" ("locorum vocabula"), such as gorges ,
groves, deserts . Next in the list come "loca amoena," interpreted as Serviu s
interprets the term . For Isidore, then, the locus amoenus is a geomorphological concept . But as early as the time of Horace (Ars poetica, 17) it wa s
a technical term of rhetorical ecphrasis and was considered such by the com mentators on Virgil . But this does not exhaust Virgil ' s contribution to th e
constitution of the ideal landscape. Antiquity accepted his authorship o f
16 The Golden Bough .
RHETORICAL OCCASIONS FOR THE DESCRIPTION OF NATURE
19 3
the minor works which modem criticism has, on more or less adequate
grounds, stricken from the canon . In the mock epic on the death of a gna t
(Culex), there is a mixed forest with nine kinds of trees, a stretch of gras s
with eighteen kinds of flowers (in Bucolica, II, 45 if. Virgil had restrained
himself to eight) .
If now we look back at Homer, Theocritus, and Virgil and ask ourselve s
the question : What types of ideal landscape could late Antiquity and the
Middle Ages get from these poets?—we cannot but answer : the mixed
forest and the locus amoenus (with flowery meadows ad libitum) . This
heritage was twice subjected to conceptual schematization : in late antique
rhetoric and in twelfth-century dialectics . Both processes worked in th e
same direction : toward technicalization and intellectualization . A series of
clearly distinguished nature topoi was developed .
A complete analysis could set forth this development in detail . We can
only sketch some of its principal lines .
4.
Rhetorical Occasions for the Description of Nature
Richard Heinze in his Virgils epische Technik (1903) rejected any influence of rhetoric upon the Aeneid . Eduard Norden, on the contrary, i n
his commentary on Book VI, which also appeared in 1903, remarked o n
VI, 638 ("Devenere locos laetos . . ."), that Virgil had "described th e
Elysian grove with all the devices of that graceful Arise which, in artisti c
prose, was customarily employed precisely in descriptions of tXorl an d
Tapaieiooc ." The passage, then, would be a poetical description stylisticall y
dependent upon rhetorical prose . Hence, for all that follows it is important
for us to discover which of the systematized divisions of rhetoric might afford rules for describing landscape . In this search we come first upon judicial oratory. Since the time of Aristotle the doctrine of proof distinguishes
between "inartificial" proof (i .e ., such as the orator finds ready to hand an d
has only to use 17 ) and "artificial" proofs . The latter the orator himsel f
produced, he had to "discover" them . They rest upon reflection ; or, in th e
language of Aristotle, upon "syllogisms" (trains of reasoning) . The rhetorical syllogism is called an enthymema, in Latin argumentum (Quintilian ,
V, 10, 1) . For the discovery of such proofs rhetoric provides general categories or "localities ." The loci are divided into those of the person an d
those of the thing . The former ("argumenta a persona") are : birth, country, sex, age, education, etc . The topoi of the thing ("argumenta a re," also
called "attributa") answer the questions : Why? where? when? how? etc .
These topoi of the thing are again very elaborately subdivided . What is o f
interest to us is that the question Where? gives rise to an "argumentum a
loco," the question When? to an "argumentum a tempore ." The forme r
(V, 10, 37) is concerned with discovering proofs in the character of th e
17 Laws, witnesses, contracts, confessions, oaths, etc
.
v
10. THE IDEAL LANDSCAPE
THE PLEASANCE
place where the matter in question occurred . Was it mountainous or level?
by the sea or inland? cultivated? frequented? lonely? etc . Of much th e
same nature is the "argumentum a tempore ." When did the thing occur ?
In what season? and at what time of day? etc . It is true that both forensi c
and political eloquence were almost entirely supplanted in late Antiquit y
by epideictic eloquence : but their system was carried on by tradition, an d
from this there naturally resulted a blurring and mingling of the several
oratorical genres . Accordingly, we find the argumenta a loco and a ter pore
recurring in medieval arts of poetry . But the description of landscape coul d
also start from the rules of inventio for epideictic oratory . For the principal
business of this genre is eulogy . Among things that can be praised, place s
form one category . They can be praised for their beauty, for their fertility,
for their healthfulness (Quintilian, III, 7, 27) . The New Sophistic late r
especially developed the description (EKOpans, descriptio) as well as applying it to landscape. 1 8
We conclude : Descriptions of nature could start from the topics of eithe r
judicial or epideictic oratory, and specifically from the topoi of place an d
time . In medieval theory 19 the technical terms argumentum a loco, a
tern pore, which stem from the forensic topics of proof, are transferred t o
the rules for nature description—certainly a historically fascinating episod e
in the great recasting process to which the Nordic West subjected the heritage of Antiquity .—But antique rhetoric dealt with the description o f
places elsewhere too. This third treatment occurs in its discussion of the
figures—in the division, then, devoted to diction (elocutio, Xs) . O f
this, more later . But first we must examine the ideal landscapes of post Virgilian poetry .
5 . The Grove
in which poets try to outdo one another . At the same time they are reduce d
to types and schematized . Ovid presents the motif of the "ideal mixe d
forest" in an elegant variation : the grove is not there from the beginning ,
it comes into existence before our eyes . First we see a hill entirely withou t
shade . Orpheus appears and begins to play his lyre . Nowt1 treescom e
hurryin —no les than twent -six s ecies!—and give shade, (Met., X, Solo . The younger Seneca offers—in pass' g as it were—a grove wit h
eight species (Oedipus, 532) . The groves and forests of St
hebais,
VI, 98) and Claudian..(.D.e..raptu Proserpinae, II, toy) are more plenteously-supplied . The former mentions thirteen species of trees, the latter r,&e .
From late Greek poetry, finally, we ''bust mention the Garden of Emathio n
in Nonnus (Dionysiaca, III, 140) . Clearly, what we are dealing with is a
standard topos . These bravura pieces have as little to do with observatio n
of nature as Ekkehart's graces have to do with monastery cooking . Whether
the species enumerated could all occur together in one forest, the poet doe s
not care, and does not need to care—despite the protests of a Julius Caesa r
Scali a ritic-r1s~° The ideal of this late rhetorical poetry i s
ric ness of decor and an elaborate vocabulary. In the twelfth century Joseph
of Exeter (De Bello Troiano, I, 507) put together another such forest, with
ten species of trees . His countrymen Chaucer, Spenser (The Parlement o f
Foules, 176 and The Faerie Queene, I, 1, 8), and Keats (The Fall of Hyperion, I, 19 ff .) follow his example . The "mixed forest" can also be considered a subspecies of the "catalogue," which is a fundamental poeti c
form that goes back to Homer and Hesiod .
In Virgil the "ideal" or idealized "mixed forest" was still poetically fel t
and was harmonized with the composition of the epic succession of scenes .
In Ovid, however, poetry is already dominated by rhetoric . In his work and
in that of his successors, descriptions of nature become bravura interludes ,
18 A particular genre of style was enjoined for it, the &vth pdv rXe.opa, th e
"flowery style" (Proclus, Chrestomathia in R. Westphal, Scriptores metrici graeci ,
I, 229) . Further particulars in Erwin Rohde, Der griechische Roman, p . 335 an d
p . 512, and in Norden, 285 . Now, among things which can be praised, and henc e
"described" are the seasons . The bcopaair xpbvwv is treated, to name only one
technographer, by Hermogenes (ed . Rabe, 22, 14) . Applications of this schema
are found in late antique poetry, for example in Nonnus (Dionysiaca, XI, 486) o r
in Corippus (In laudem Justini, I, 320) or in the Anthologia latina (Buecheler Riese, No . 116, Nos . 567-578, No . 864) . Frequently, however, spring is treated
alone, for example by Meleager (A .P ., IX, 363), by Ovid (Fasti, I, 151, and III,
325), later by Pentadius (Anthol . latina, No . 235), in Greek prose by the sophis t
Procopius of Gaza (ca . 500), and others . Such descriptions of spring frequentl y
comprise but a few lines, especially as digressions in a longer poem (Ennodius, ed .
Martel, p. 512, 13 ; Theodulf in Poetae, I, 484, 51 ; Carm . cant., No . 10, st . 3) .
19 E .g., in Matthew of Vendome (Faral, p . 146, Slob ff .) .
6.
195
The Pleasance
The locus amoenus (pleasance), to which we now pass, has not previousl y
been recognized as possessing an independent rhetorico-poetical existence .
Yet, from the Empire to the sixteenth century, it forms the principal motif
of all nature description . It is, as we saw, a beautiful, shaded natural site .
Its minimum ingredients comprise a tree (or several trees), a meadow, and
a spring or brook . Birdsong and flowers may be added . The most elaborate
examples also add a breeze . In Theocritus and Virgil such scenes are merely
backgrounds for the ensuing pastoral poetry . But they were soon detached
from any larger context and became subjects of bravura rhetorical description . Horce already disapproves of this tendency (AP ., 1y) . The earliest
examp el I have found of this sort of ecphrasis in Latin poetry is in Petronius ,
Carm . 131 :
wpmMobilis aestivas platanus di f fuderat umbras
Et bacis redemita Daphne tremulaeque cupressus
Et circum tonsae trepidanti vertice pinus .
Has inter ludebat quis errantibus amni s
20 I .e ., Book VI of the Poetices libri septem (1561) .
196
10 .
THE IDEAL LANDSCAP E
Spumeus, et querulo vexabat rore lapillos .
Dignus amore locus: testis silvestris aedo n
Atque urbana Procne, quae circum gramina fusae
Et molles violas cantu sua rura colebant .
(A moving plane cast summer shadows, so too the laurel crowned wit h
berries, and the tremulous cypresses, and, all around, the shorn pines wit h
their swaying tops . Among them, in wandering streams, played a foam y
brook, fretting the pebbles with complaining waters . The place was fi t
for love : Witness the wood-haunting nightingale and the town-hauntin g
swallow both, who, flitting over the grass and tender violets, beautified th e
place with their singing . )
The most beautiful presentation of the locus amoenus in late Lati n
poetry is found in a poem of Tiberianus, of the Constantine period :
Amnis ibat inter herbas valle fusus frigida ,
Luce ridens calculorum, fore pictus herbido .
Caerulas superne laurus et virecta myrte a
Leniter motabat aura blandiente sibilo .
Subtus autem molle gramen fore pulcro creverat ;
Et croco solum rubebat et lucebat liliis .
Turn nemus fragrabat omne violarum spiritu .
Inter ista dona veris gemmeasque gratias
Omnium regina odorum vel colorum lucife r
Auriflora praeminebat famma Diones, rosa .
Roscidum nemus rigebat inter uda gramina:
Fonte crebro murmurabant hinc et inde rivuli ,
Quae fluenta labibunda guttis ibant lucidis .
Antra muscus et virentes intus hederae vinxerant .
Has per umbras omnis ales plus canora quam putes
Cantibus vernis strepebat et susurris dulcibus :
His loquentis murmur amnis concinebat frondibus ,
Quis melos vocalis aurae musa zephyri moverat .
Sic euntem per virecta pulchra odora et music a
Ales amnis aura lucus fins et umbra iuverat . 21
(Through the fields there went a river ; down the airy glen it wound,
Smiling mid its radiant pebbles, decked with flowery plants around .
Dark-hued laurels waved above it close by myrtle greeneries ,
Gently swaying to the whispers and caresses of the breeze .
21 Text after Buecheler-Riese, Anthol. latina, I, z, No. 8o9 .—L . to is corrupt .
I have emended forma dionis following H . W . Garrod, The Oxford Book of Lati n
Verse (1912), p. 372 .
THE PLEASANCE
19 7
Underneath grew velvet greensward with a wealth of bloom for dower ,
And the ground, agleam with lilies, coloured 'neath the saffron-flower,
While the grove was full of fragrance and of breath from violets .
Mid such guerdons of the spring-time, mid its jewelled coronets ,
Shone the queen of all the perfumes, Star that loveliest colours shows ,
Golden flame of fair Dione, passing every flower—the rose .
Dewsprent trees rose firmly upright with the lush grass at their feet :
Here, as yonder, streamlets murmured tumbling from each well-spring fleet .
Grottoes had an inner binding made of moss and ivy green ,
Where soft-flowing runlets glided with their drops of crystal sheen .
Through those shades each bird, more tuneful than belief could entertain ,
Warbled loud her chant of spring-tide, warbled low her sweet refrain .
Here the prattling river's murmur to the leaves made harmony ,
As the Zephyr's airy music stirred them into melody .
To a wanderer through the coppice, fair and filled with song and scent ,
Bird and river, breeze and woodland, flower and shade brought ravishment .) *
In this sensuously fascinating poem, Tiberianus has painted a locus amoenus with all the vivid color of late Antiquity . At this day, someone is sure
to come up with the word "impressionism"—but quite unjustifiably . The
poem has a strict structure. The author works with six "charms of landscape." They are the same six which Libanius ( 314-ca . 393) enjoins :
"Causes of delight are springs and plantations and gardens and soft breezes
and flowers and bird-voices" (ed . Forster, I, 517, S zoo) . The theme an d
the enumerative schema are, then, ready to hand . The last line, with its
resume, emphatically indicates this . In addition, the scene is divided int o
"above-below ." Finally, the poem has twenty lines, in other words a
"round number ." This points to the principle of "numerical composition "
(Excursus XV) . The surging wealth of sensual perceptions, then, is ordered
by conceptual and formal means . The finest fruit ripens on espaliers .
In the Middle Ages the locus amoenus is listed as a poetical requisite by
lexicographers and writers on style . 22 We encounter a great number of such
pleasances in the Latin poetry which flourished from 1070 onwards 23
Model examples are also to be found in the arts of poetry which began t o
appear in increasing numbers from 1170 . We have one such example by
Matthew of Vendome (Faral, p . 148) . It is a rhetorical amplificatio, to
[* Trans . J . W . and A . M . Duff . ]
22 In Papias' lexicon (ca. 1050) : "amoena loca dicta : quod amorem praestant ,
iocunda, viridia ."—Ekkehart IV enjoins : "delitiis plenus locus appelletur amenus "
(Poetae, V, 533, 10) .
23 Wido of Ivrea, ed . Diimmler, p. 95, 43 ff.—Baudri of Bourgueil describes
(Abrahams, p . 191) a garden, making much use of Virgil (Bucolics, II, 45 ; Georgics ,
IV, 30 ; Culex, 390; Coda, so) . In his garden there are fifteen species of flower s
and many species of trees (including laurel and olive) . I have discussed this and
other passages in RF, LVI (1942), 219-56 . Walter Map (Poems, pp . 237 ff . )
should be added .
198
10 .
THE IDEAL LANDSCAP E
which an air of novelty is imparted by a strong dose of dialectics, expresse d
in the driest conceptualistic terms . The description takes sixty-two lines ,
each idea being subjected to several variations . The means employed is th e
school exercise of grammatical permutation . Thus we first have : " The bird
twitters, the brook murmurs, the breeze blows warm" ; next, "The bird s
give pleasure by their voices, the brook by its murmuring, the breeze by it s
warmth," and so on. By the inclusion of fruit, the total number of "charm s
of landscape" is raised to seven . They are distributed first among the five
senses and then among the four elements . The logical jargon of dialectic s
has made its way into the writer's vocabulary.
The philosophical epic of the latter part of the twelfth century incorporates the locus amoenus into its structure and develops it into various
forms of the earthly paradise . In his Anticlaudianus Alan of Lille describes
the dwelling place of Natura : a towering castle surrounded by a grov e
which represents the height of natural beauty (SP ., II, 2 7 5) . It is the "place
of places" ("locus ille locorum"), hence the imum of the locus amoenus . John of Hanville takes us to the fabulous island Thule, where the philosophers of Antiquity are gathered in a scene of perpetual spring (SA I
326) . The pleasance has here acquired a new bit of luxury : a circular piece
ofmooth ground ( " planities patulum lunatur in orbem " ) . This stem s
from a description of a villa by Pliny (Ep ., V, 6, 7) ; it is adopted by Geoffrey of Vinsauf (Faral, 274, 5), who, however, adds porticoes .24 One o f
the last poet-rhetoricians of the twelfth-century flowering, Peter Riga (d .
1209), makes the locus amoenus the theme of an entire poem, On Earth's
Ornament nonrn ntry.undi—printed among Hildebert's works, FL,
X 35 ff .) . Here diacaLanalysis and symmetry (the sources o f
p Tre particularized according to the several senses, etc .) are agai n
strongly apparent . The "delights" ("deliciae") of the pleasance are greatl y
increased in number—spices, balsam, honey, wine, cedars, and bees are
added . Mythological decorations appear. The pleasure grove is the rose o f
the world . But it fades : Turn ye to the heavenly rose .
I believe that, in what precedes, I have established the locus amoenu s
historically as a clearly defined topos of landscape description . Certain
further problems in the history of topics and of style are connected with it .
In Theecjitus ' poem in praise of the Dios ' XXII 36 ff 1 we are give n
a description of a locus amoenus which—most surprisingly—lies in a "wil d
woo " Such a union ocontrasts was offered by nature in a famous regio n
of Greece, the Vale of Tempe . "The Vale of Tempe, an ideal example o f
landscape beauty as the ancients understood it, singularly combines th e
charm of a river valley with the wildness and grandeur of a deep rocky gorge .
Here, in the course of a walk of an hour and a half, the river Peneus passes
24 In I. r r serta (Faral) should read septa (from Martial, II, 14, 5)
. The porticoes also passed into CB, 59, st . z : "In hac valle florida / Floreus flagratus, / Inte r
septa lilia, / Locus purpuratus . "—Gervase of Melkley 's locus amoenus (Studi me dievali [1936], 34) should also be mentioned here.
THE PLEASANCE
199
through a gorge formed by the steep slopes of Ossa and Olympus, whic h
almost reach its bed . The cliffs on both sides form almost vertical fissured
walls, picturesquely overgrown with greenery . The slopes of Olympus mak e
a sheer descent almost all the way ; but on the right bank there is generall y
a narrow fringe of fertile soil, often broadening into small plains which ar e
refreshed by countless springs, covered with luxuriant grass, and shaded b y
laurels, planes, and oaks . The river flows steadily and quietly, making a
small island here and there, now wider, now forced into a narrow bed b y
jutting cliffs, under a roof of plane leaves through which the sun canno t
penetrate ." 25 Antiquity has left us descriptions by Theopompus, the elde r
Pliny 26 (H .N ., IV, 8 and XV, 31), and Aelian (Var. hist ., III, 1) . Temp e
had long since become the generic name for a variety of locus amoenus 27
—a cool wooded valley between steep slopes . 28 In his praise of country lif e
Virgil had said (Georg., II, 467) that countrymen lacked the luxuries o f
the city, but :
At secure quies et nescia fallere vita ,
Dives opum variarum, at latis otia fundis ,
Speluncae vivique lacus, at f rigida Temp e
Mugitusque bourn mollesque sub arbore somni
Non absunt . . .
(But peace secure, life without disappointments ,
Manifold riches, ease amid wide domains ,
Caverns and living lakes, coolness of vales ,
Lowing of herds, soft sleep beneath the trees
These fail them not . . . )
Servius had commented on this passage that Tempe was properl y
a locus amoenus in Thessaly, but stood by catachresis for any charming place ("abusive cuiusvis loci amoenitas") . We must, nevertheless ,
assume that the specialized Tempe motif, as we found it in Theocritu s
(pleasance in a wild wood) also passed into the rhetorical tradition . Theon ,
in his Preliminary Exercises, refers to Theopompus' description . We shall
find this motif again in Romance poetry .
As we have seen, the locus amoenus also formed part of the scenery o f
L . Friedlaender, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, I9, 469 .
In Plin y ' s description the high mountains which shut in the valley are men tioned. Then : "intus sua luce viridante allabitur Peneus, viridis calculo, amoenu s
circa ripas gramine, canorus avium concentu ." This description is already tinge d
with the colors of poetry . Tiberianus' "luce ridens calculorum" recalls Pliny's
"viridis calculo . "
27 Cf . the examples in Pape's Worterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen . Also :
F. Jacoby, Fr. Gr . H ., 115, F 78-80 . Burgess, 202, n . 1 .
28 Medieval Latin poetry takes this over. Fulco of Beauvais (d . after 1083) ,
prologue to vita s . Blandini 15 : "Dum fontes, saltus, dum Thessala Tempe reviso ."
25
26
zoo
10 .
pastoral poetry and thus of erotic poetry. Hence it was also taken over b y
the so-called "Vagantes ." 29 We find it in the Carmina Burana .s o
Virgil's description of the Elysian Fields was employed by Christia n
poets for Paradise. 31 The locus amoenus can also enter into the poetica l
description of gardens . 32
7.
Epic Landscape
As we have already indicated, nature description is also discussed in th e
rhetorical treatment of the figures of speech . The orator, the poet, the historian might find it necessary to sketch the scene of an event—that is, t o
'situate" a place, be it real or fictitious . The Greek for this is roaoeeai a
or rolroypa¢ia (the "situation" or "description" of a place) . In Latin "positus locorum" (Statius, Silvae, V, 3, 236) or "situs terrarum" (Horace ,
Epi ., II, 1, 251) 33—still used in the same sense by Hohenstaufen poets . 34
The medieval epic is always ready to impart topographical and geographical information . The poet of the Waltharius begins with disarming candor :
Tertia pars orbis, fratres, Europa vocatur .
(The world's third part, brothers, is known as Europe . )
On the concepts Vagant and Vagantendichtung ("Goliard," "Goliardi c
etry") cf . Otto Schumann, commentary on CB, I, 82* if .
30 Schumann No .=, st . 3, 1 : "in virgulto florido stabam et ameno."—No. 79 ,
st. 1 : the poet rests u'eaer an olive tree . St . 2 : "Erat arbor hec in prato / Quovis
Rote picturato, / Herba, forte, situ grato, / Sed et umbra, flatu dato," etc .—No.
92, st. 7 and 8 .—No . 137, st. 1 .—No . 58 .—No. 145, etc .
31 Sedulius, I, 53 .—Prudentius, Cath., III, 1o1, and Genesis, II, 8 ff.—Dracontius, De laudibus Dei, I, 18o to 250 ; I, 348 ; III, 752 . Poetae, I, 573, No .
LXXIV .—Gibuin of Langres (SB Berlin [1891, 99) .—Peter Riga (PL, CLXXI,
1309 D ) .—Commendatio mortuorum in the Roman Ritual : "Constituat to Christus inter paradisi sui semper amoena virentia ."—Boniface calls Paradise "amoeni tatis locus" (RF, II [1886], 276) .—When Paradise was to be represented on th e
stage, there were stage directions such as those at the beginning of the Anglo-Frenc h
play of Adam : "Sint in eo (in paradiso) diversae arbores et fructus in eis dependentes, ut amenissimus locus videatur." In Virgil's Elysium there are no fruit trees .
For the Christian Paradise they were indispensable, because of the forbidden fruit .
32 Flora's garden in Ovid (Fasti, V, 208) .—Garden of love with eternal sprin g
in Claudian (Epithalamium de nuptiis honorii, 49) .—Poetae, III, 159, No . XI,
st. 4.—Since Paradise is a garden, a garden can, by transposition, be called a paradise (Poetae, V, 275, 411) .—Hence also the atrium before the narthex of Romanesque cathedrals (E . Schlee, Die Ikonographie der Paradiesesfiiisse [ 1 937], 1 3 8 ) —
0 . Schissel, "Der byzantinische Garten and seine Darstellung im gleichzeitige n
Roman," SB Wien, CCXXI [1942], No . 2 .
33 topothesia : Cicero to Atticus, I, 13 and I, 16 .—topographia : Halm, 73, 1 —
Lucan, X, 177 : "Phariae primordia gentis Terrarumque situs volgique edisser e
mores ." Here topography broadens to embrace ethnography. Similarly in the elder
Seneca : "Locorum habitus fluminumque decursus et urbium situs moresque popu lorum . . ." (Contr ., II, praef .) .—The fact that the description of localities i s
treated in three different sections of the system is still reflected in the twelfth century arts of poetry . Matthew of Vendome refers to the "locus naturalis" unde r
the "proprietates quae a Tullio attributa vocantur" (Faral, p . 119, S 41), again
under the "attributa negotio" (p . 1 43, S 94 and p . 1 47, S 109), and finally (p . 148 ,
34 Ligurinus, II, 57 .
S 111) as "topographia."
29
EPIC LANDSCAPE
THE IDEAL LANDSCAPE
20 1
But Walter of Chatillon, for all his artistry, uses the same schema (Alexandreis, I, 396 ff .), which goes back to Isidore 's chorography (Et., XIV, 3 ,
1) . But though distinguishing the world's "three parts" did not come amis s
to the epic poet, he must have been more concerned with indicating th e
successive scenes of his action by topography . The turning points and climaxes of his epic must be made plain by summary scenic indications, jus t
as dramatic performances demand a stage set, however primitive—let i t
be no more than a sign reading "This is a wood ." We have already found
such " epic adumbration of landscape " in the Iliad . In the Song of
Roland trees and hills are used for battle scenes and death scenes . A council of war is held "under a laurel tree that stands in the midst of a field "
(2651) . We find the same laurel tree on a hill in a battle field in Walte r
of Chatillon ." It is marked as a locus amoenus by the addition of a spring,
a brook, and grass, and is derived from the Spanish Libro de Alexandre
("un lorer anciano" : ed . Willis, 169, 936) . Another indispensable piec e
of epic stage setting is the orchard or plantation ("verger" : Son; o f
Roland, II, 103, 501) . But with the rise of the courtly romance in verse ,
the primitive landscape requirements of the heroic epic are far exceeded .
The new genre is a creation of France and first appears about 1150 . One
of its principal motifs is the wild forest—"una selva selvaggia ed aspra e
forte," as Dante will later put it . Percival grows up in the forest . Arthur' s
knights often pass through wild forests on their journeys . But in the midst
of the wilderness there is frequently a locus amoenus in the form of a verger .
Thus in the Romance of Thebes :
2126 haste le pie d'une montaigne
En un val entre merveillos
Qui mout ert lain e tenebros . . .
2141 Mout chevauchoent a grant peine,
Quant aventure les ameine
A un vergier que mout ert Benz,
Que one espice ne pimenz
Que hon peust trover ne dir e
De cel vergier ne fu a dire .
35
Alexandreis, II, 308 :
Adscendit tumulum modico qui colle tumeba t
Castrorum medius, patulis ubi frondea rami s
Laurus odoriferas celebat crinibus herbas .
That epic prefers the laurel tree is explained by medieval rhetoric . This distinguishe s
three styles, to which certain occupations, trees, and animals correspond, and whic h
were based upon Virgil's Bucolics, Georgics, and Aeneid respectively . The stilus_
humilis treats of shepherds and its tree is the beech . The stilus mediocris treats of
- tanners
acrd calls tor trust tree (Georgics, H, 4M . The staus graves treats of war.
, ITT[19o2J, 900) .
rees grow
or it are the laurel and the ce .ar
e sys em was wor e' out from ems onatus commentary on Virgil . Cf .
Schanz, IV, 12, p . 165 . In the Middle Ages it was known as " rota Virgilii " (infra ,
p. 232 ) .
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10 . THE IDEAL LANDSCAPE
(Close to the foot of a mountain he entered a wondrous (wooded) valle y
which was very hideous and darksome . They rode long and hard, whe n
adventure brings them to a verger most charming, and no spice sweet o r
sharp that men can find and name was lacking in that verger . )
11
We find the same thing in the epic of the Cid . One of the climaxes o f
the poem is the shame which the Infants of Carrion put upon the Cid' s
daughters in the forest of Corpes. The poet uses appropriately atmospheri c
scenery :
Poetry and Philosoph y
1.
2698 Los montes son altos, las ramas pujan con las nuoves,
E la bestias fieras que andan aderredor .
Fallaron un vergel con una limpia fuont .
(The mountains are high, the branches reach to the clouds ,
And wild beasts wander there .
They found a verger with a clear spring .) 3 6
Ariosto shows us Angelica fleeing through a wild forest (I, 33) :
Fugge tra selve spaventose e scure ,
Per lochi inabitati, ermi a selvaggi .
Lo and behold! in the midst of these terrifying woods, there is "u n
boschetto adorno" (I, 35), with a gentle breeze, two clear brooks, lawns ,
shade . . .
In these three examples from Romance poetry 37 the locus amoenus is
embedded in the wild forest of the romance of chivalry .
This combination was foreshadowed in the ancient Tempe motif . Al l
"harmonies of opposites" (puer senex, and the like) are emotive formulas
and as such have especial vitality.
The ideal landscape can always flower again in a new spring .38
36 In the vicinity of Corpes there was and is no mountain . According to Menendez Pidal monte would here mean "wild wood," "arbolado o matorral de un terren o
inculto ." And the verger? Menendez Pidal comments somewhat constrainedly :
"Sin duda significa una mancha de floresta (Alamos, fresnos, etc .) con pradera o
verdegal; desconozco otros textos que usen la palabra en esta acepcion." We avoi d
these difficulties when we realize that we are here dealing not with a passage o f
realistic description but with the same epic landscape topos as that cited from the
Romance of Thebes.
37 The ideal landscape of Romance poetry deserves to be studied . It would of
course exhibit very numerous connections with Latin poetry, as well as attempts t o
add something new . Berceo, for example, describes a pleasance whose springs are
cool in summer and hot in winter (Milagros de Nuestra Senora, Introduction, st . 3) .
But this novelty comes from Isidore (Et ., XIII, 13, 10) and Augustine (PL, XLI ,
718) . Guillaume de Lorris translates locus amoenus as "le lieu plaisant" (Roma n
de la Rose, 117) . He adheres to the precepts of Matthew of Vendome, as a medie val reader already observed (Langlois's note on I. 78) . He has a mixed forest (132364), and so on .
33 It would be fascinating to compare the flower flora of the ancients (supra ,
pp . 186, 193, 197, n . 23) with that of the moderns . C. Ruutz-Rees covers th e
ground from Sannazaro to Milton (Melanges Abel Lefranc [1936], 75) . Keats and
Wilde continue the line .
Homer and Allegory / 2 . Poetry and Philosophy
3 . Philosophy in Late Pagan Antiquity
4 . Philosophy and Christianity
1.
Homer and Allegory
o THE QUESTION as to the poet's significance in the world, Goeth e
has Wilhelm Meister answer : "Innate within his inmost heart, the
beautiful flower of wisdom grows, and if other men dream awake
and are terrified out of their wits by monstrous imaginings, he lives th e
dream of life as one awake, and what befalls, no matter how strange, is t o
him at once past and future . And so the poet is at once teacher, soothsayer,
friend of the gods and friend of men ." There are echoes of antique though t
here . All Antiquity sees the poet as sage, teacher, educator . To be sure ,
Homer himself does not know this concept . The Homeric bard, who recite s
his poems in the princely courts of Ionia, entertains his hearers and hold s
them "spellbound" (Od ., XVII, 518 and XI, 334) . Is there an echo i n
this word of the original kinship of poetry and magic? 1 But even if th e
"spell" is meant metaphorically, the word designates the purest effect o f
all poetry and points to a timelessly valid truth which stands above an y
pedagogical concept of poetry .
But it was precisely the pedagogical concept which the ancients cherished . Should poetry only give pleasure, or should it be useful too? Horac e
concentrated much previous discussion of the subject in the humdru m
dictum : It should do both . But was Homer useful? Was Homer true ?
These came to be basic problems of antique literary theory . They had immense historical consequences . The first attack on Homer was made b y
Hesiod . He addresses himself to the lower stratum of Boeotian society, denounces the degenerate nobility, sets himself up as the advocate of mora l
and social reform . While he was keeping his father's sheep on Helicon th e
muses consecrated him a poet and said to him : "We know how to tell
many lies that resemble truth ; but we know how to tell truth too, whe n
we wish ." Hesiod's "truths" are not only concerned with the creation o f
T
1 E . E . Sikes, The Greek View of Poetry ( 1 93 1 ), 3 .
203